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Intermediate 1 minute
Synchronous vs Asynchronous Communication
Synchronous communication keeps the caller waiting for a response before it continues. It is direct and useful when the next step needs an immediate result, but slow or failed dependencies extend the request. Asynchronous communication lets the caller hand work to another component and continue, often through a queue. It improves decoupling but needs status tracking, retries, and failure handling.
Key idea
Synchronous means wait now; asynchronous means continue and finish later.
See it in one picture
Follow the arrowsCaller
Wait
Hand off
Worker
Work finishes later
Real-world example
A checkout request may synchronously authorize payment, then asynchronously send a receipt email. Email delivery should not make a successful purchase fail because a mail provider is slow.
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